Farmers need to step up: Reddy

Minister for Agriculture, Mahendra Reddy, said he was committed to increasing agriculture export fourfold.

He made the comment in Rakiraki where he urged farmers and market vendors to grow more cash crops and start organic compost pits.

Mr Reddy was chief guest at the

Rakiraki Market Vendors Association and Rakiraki Town Council Diwali celebrations.

Step up

He said: “Farmers need to step up and continue empowering the economy through agriculture. “We now export close to $50 million in our agriculture sector and we can increase that to $200 million.”

Such prospects were possible if farmers were committed to exploring cash crop options, Mr Reddy said.

He urged farmers to develop communal compost pits to produce organic fertiliser for their farms.

“Instead of using chemical fertilisers, we are strongly promoting using organic fertiliser which is cheaper, safer and better choice for not only the soil, but also for those that will consume your produce,” Mr Reddy said.

Ready

The market was ready for Fiji’s agriculture export as provided for by Fiji Agromarketing Authority, he said.

Farmers would only be asked to plant crops that AMA and exporters wanted to buy, Mr Reddy said.

Such crops included cassava, dalo, duruka, and bongo chillies, he said.

It would be in the best interest of farmers to concentrate on growing two to three crops on a communal level, as step towards commercial agriculture, Mr Reddy said.

Farmers have been told to work with the Fiji Agromarketing Authority in the interest of commercial farming.